Colleen Kelleher, wtop.com

OCEAN CITY, Md. – While Ocean City is seeing more foreclosures and short sales, real estate brokers say the traditional sales market for vacation properties is starting to pick up.

“My experience is most sellers are very realistic. The prices are where they need to be, and we’re seeing the market pick up,” says broker Bernie Roache of Century 21/New Horizon in Ocean City.

“We’re seeing the buyers coming out looking. There are some reasonable deals to be had,” says Roache, who’s been in real estate 32 years.

Bud Church, an Ocean City broker who’s been in the business 39 years, agrees.

“We’re seeing a trend where the inventories are beginning to climb a little bit. That’s a very, very good sign. We’ve been looking for that sign for some time,” Church says.

Church says foreclosures and short sales added inventory to the market.

“People were frightened. People wanted to get out,” Church says. “Now that the sales have been picking up, people are getting a little more comfortable with the market. [It’s] not a big change, but there are some signs there that we’re beginning to level off.”

Through May, the number of settlements on Ocean City condominiums increased by 18 percent, compared with settlements for the time frame in 2009. Of the 311 settlements, data compiled by the Coastal Association of Realtors show bulk of settlements – 83 – to be between $200,000 and $299,000. Two sales in the first five months did top the $1 million mark.

Both brokers are hedging their bets about when the market will completely stabilize.

“I’m hoping in the next year or two with the trends that we’re seeing now,” Church says.

“I’ve learned not to predict anymore because the predictions I made three years ago didn’t come true,” Roache says.

Typically, down cycles in Ocean City last about three years, he says.

“Well, this one started, by my reckoning, in August of 2005,” he says. “So, we’re coming into the fifth year of it. It has gone longer than what the normal experience is, but we do see the market coming back.”

Roache says more people have shown an interest in buying and actual sales are starting to pick up.

“I don’t see it being a rapid resurgence. We’re seeing a healthy growth,” Roache says.

“I think the prices are where they need to be now, so we’re seeing the sales taking place pretty close to the asking price, more traditional. I think we still have a lot of inventory, but it’s going to take probably a couple years to get it down.:

Roache predicts next spring Ocean City will see stronger sales.

“By the end of next year, we’ll be in good shape. That’s my sense of it.”

Katie Barlow and Cassie Hom assisted with this story.

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